A Different Kind of Magic
by p.c. andrews
Summary: Sirius Black becomes involved with a different kind of witch. HP/ Wheel of Time
1. Prologue: The Portal Stone

_All characters in this fiction are originally creations of J.K. Rowling. The exeption to this is the character of Nadiera Godesin. The concepts of Aes Sedai and channeling the One Power are originally from Robert Jordan._

A Different Kind of Magic

Prologue: The Portal Stone

The heat rising from the earth did not deter the lone Aes Sedai as she made her way to the site that was marked on the map that had been given to her. Dried-out grass crunched under her boots, and though an Aes Sedai usually never lets anyone see her sweat, it was evident that she was tired and overheated. She headed to a large, cylindrical stone set in the ground, covered with symbols and words from an Age long past. The stone was low enough for someone to sit on, though one never should sit on a Portal Stone, especially if she could channel. She'd never know where she'll wind up...

Nadiera Godesin turned the map over. She looked carefully at the lettering written on it, and then leaned down and compared it to the writing on the Stone. Her friend and fellow Aes Sedai Liandrin had given this map to her before her mysterious disappearance from the White Tower last year. Nadiera couldn't believe the rumors that her fellow Red Sister could be a Darkfriend! Nadiera had no doubt that Liandrin was attempting to do her duty as a Red Sister and find that false Dragon in Tear. That was where she was trying to go now; as another Aes Sedai of the Red Ajah, it was her task to help Liandrin capture this man and gentle him before he could destroy the world with his madness.

Nadiera sighed in slight exasperation as she looked at the symbols. _She'd be joining Liandrin as soon as she could figure out what exactly she was supposed to do._ Liandrin had shown her the guiding symbols long ago, but she hadn't been too clear about what sort of flows Nadiera would need to channel. She had never used a Portal Stone before.

Nadiera drew a deep breath, and embraced _saidar_. Flows of Earth and Spirit swirled around Nadiera, and her consiousness merged with the Portal Stone. Suddenly, the agony of being trampled under a thousand feet besieged her. Every war mankind had ever fought flashed through her mind in an instant. She was born and killed and born and died and born dead and buried alive. Every one of her past lives swirled before her eyes, and though her wail of fear and rage went unheard to anyone but herself, it filled her world.

And, as suddenly as it began, it ended. Nadiera hit the stone ground, and a screeching sound field her ears. Nadiera looked up, and saw something large and with wheels careening toward her. Embracing _saidar_ again, she tried to weave flows of Air to halt whatever it was coming at her. But, it was too late...


	2. A Driving Lesson

_All characters in this fiction are originally creations of J.K. Rowling. The exeption to this is the character of Nadiera Godesin. The concepts of Aes Sedai and channeling the One Power are originally from Robert Jordan._

A Different Kind of Magic

Chapter 1: A Driving Lesson

_The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the age that gave birth to it comes again. In one Age, called the Second Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the great city of London. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But is was __a_ beginning.

The wind rushed through the open window of a very old Ford Monarch, messing the black hair on a young man's head as he intently stared at the street, trying to manuever the great heap around the corner. Only too late did he see a woman appear in the street, right in his path, out of nowhere. The next thing he knew, he heard a sickening _thump_ by the bumper.

"Oh my God! What happened?" the young man driving the car gasped as he dashed out to see who he had hit. He leaned over a blonde woman who was dressed in a long green dress, a woolen cloak and short boots. She had a small knapsack with her, and it had opened when she was hit. Another man was at the young one's side an instant later.

"Is she conscious Harry?"

"Dunno, Sirius. You had better get back in the car; what if someone sees you?"

"To hell with that Harry! I'll be fine, let's just make sure this woman will be," the other man breathed. The woman opened her eyes. "Lady? Can you hear me? Are you hurt badly? We will get you to a healer as soon as humanly possible, I promise."

Nadiera blinked. "My hip..." she groaned. The older man gently shifted her over a bit. Nadiera looked past him to the young one. He looked very upset over what had happened.

"Looks like maybe I'd better not learn to drive after all..." he winced as he looked down at the woman. She had an unusual face, lovely, and yet, it was as if he couldn't tell how old she was...

"Yes... perhaps you should stick to flying broomsticks Harry..." Sirius sighed.

Harry leaned closer. Soon the both of them were hovering over the woman. "Sirius..." Harry uttered under his breath.

"Oh. It's alright Harry; she's a witch," Sirius told him.

The woman growled. "How dare you address me like that, like you were some sort of disrespectful Whitecloak! I'm 'Aes Sedai,' not _'witch!'"_ she spat.

"What's a Whitecloak?" Harry asked Sirius. "And how could you tell she's a witch?"

"I could tell because..." Sirius began, but the woman began to wail in fright.

"Light help me! Two _men_ who can channel!" she screamed in panic. Both Harry and Sirius could sense her doing some sort of magic, like she was shielding herself with her powers. But then, she fainted.

"Quick, Sirius, let's get her back in the car. We'll take her to the Leaky Cauldron, it's only a few blocks away. She needs medical help. You'd better drive..." Harry ordered. Sirius nodded and they both very carefully hauled her into the car. It occurred to Harry that it was nothing less than a miracle that the Muggles didn't notice. He glanced on the street one last time, and saw her knapsack. He grabbed it and jumped into the car.

Harry was thankful that Sirius at least knew how to drive. He was much too nervous to do it. "Sirius? What's channeling? Isn't that like calling on the dead or something?"

"That's something to ask old Snape sometime; he'd know all about that Dark Art." Sirius remarked.

Harry looked through her knapsack, looking for any sort of identification. All she really had in there was another thin dress, some underclothes, a small sack of gold and silver coins, and a strange shawl. It seemed like it was made of satin, but it was really like a shimmering silk. On the back of the shawl was a silver outlined design that looked a bit like a teardrop, only it was curved more like it had been half of the yin-yang symbol. And the fringe of the shawl was a bright blood red...

"No ID on her, Sirius. Is she awake yet?" Harry asked.

"No, but we'd better wake her up again; we're at the Leaky Cauldron," Sirius told Harry.

"I'll take her in. Can you send an owl to Hogwart's, and possibly get Madame Pomfrey? Unless Tom inside knows of a better nurse..." Harry muttered as he tried to rouse the woman awake. "I'll help you walk, but we have to get inside. I'm getting a Healer for you..." Harry told her. She seemed unfocused as she looked at Harry.

"A woman? Not a man!" she wailed.

"Er, yes. Yes, a woman. A very good healer," Harry played along; after all, it was beacuse of his lack of good driving skills that got her into this predicament in the first place.

"A Wise Woman? A Wisdom?" the woman demanded.

"A Nurse! A Wise Woman, yes..." Harry answered. The woman seemed to relax then as Harry took her into the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry saw some of the patrons of the pub look up at him in wonder. He grimaced under their stares; no doubt the topic of conversation that evening would be how Harry Potter had suddenly appeared at the Leaky Cauldron with an injured, half-hysterical witch. Thankfully, Tom, the bartender, had a room available for her. He promised to get a cauldron upstairs so that harry could whip up a potion to take some of the pain away while waiting for better medical help to arrive. Frowning, he helped the woman limp upstairs, wondering if his potion wouldn't kill her accidentally before Madame Pomfrey arrived.


	3. The Healer

A Different Kind of Magic

Chapter 2: The Healer

Tom, the keeper at the Leaky Cauldron, frowned as he saw a big black dog streak right through the pub. The dog then dashed up the stairs too quickly for Tom to protest. Tom didn't think it was too strange for the dog to know where it was going--lots of strange sorts paraded through his pub's doors during his time.

The "dog" pushed his way into one of the Leaky Cauldron's rooms. Harry Potter glanced at the door, saw the dog, and turned back to the sleeping woman he'd been watching before the dog came in.

"So, Sirius, did you send the owl? I think Madame Pomfrey's Healing is going to help her a lot better than my feeble pain potions..." Harry sighed.

The dog transformed into a man, and that man looked at the woman in the bed with worry in his eyes. "I sent the owl, and I asked Albus to send Madame Pomfrey here straightaway, but, Harry, how is she? Has she awakened at all?"

"She woke up once," Harry sighed again. "She told me that she wanted a woman 'wisdom' or a 'wise woman' again, and then went on about men channeling, and then passed out again."

Sirius approached the bed quietly, and looked at the woman carefully. She was definitely a witch, even though she wailed that she was an "Eyes" something or other. "Do we even know her name?" he murmured. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Harry shake his head.

"When Madame Pomfrey gets here, you're going to have to leave," Harry fretted.

"Don't worry Harry, I'll be fine. I've been able to keep myself concealed well enough for two years already. I'm a real expert at it now, I daresay," Sirius responded dryly.

"I still don't understand how the Muggles never noticed anything. I was so certain that the police at least would take an interest in an accident where someone got run over," Harry said.

"Well, Harry, let's just say that I have some talent for keeping people as un-interested in me as possible..." Sirius explained. The woman began to stir a bit. Her eyes opened.

"Ugh, what is that awful taste in my mouth?" she muttered. Sirius watched her as she sat up. "Well, it seems as though I'll not be getting rid of you two any time soon." Sirius noticed that her accent wasn't British. "Why are you two staring at me? If you try anything, I'll scream down the entire place!"

Sirius looked aghast, while Harry wondered aloud "What would we possibly try?"

"Two men who can channel, and you don't even know why I'm worried?" she gasped. Harry and Sirius gave her twin blank looks. "I am Nadiera Godesin, Aes Sedai of the Red Ajah," she announced.

"Oh," Harry croaked, not sounding like he had any clue what she was talking about.

_So, her name is Nadiera,_ Sirius thought to himself. "Nadiera, what does that mean? Aes Sedai, I mean?" he asked.

Nadiera looked back up at Siruis. "What is your name?" she asked him.

"I'm Sirius Black, and this is my godson, Harry Potter. I was giving Harry a driving lesson, because his useless guardians won't do it, and...well, you know how the lesson went all too well," he grimaced.

"How could you drive a cart without horses?" Nadiera asked. "With the One Power?" She shifted herself on the bed, and winced. Her hip was dully aching. "I can sense people channeling all over this building. What is this place?"

"It's the Leaky Cauldron," Harry shrugged. "Lots of wizards and witches pass through here to get to Diagon Alley," he grinned.

Nadiera glanced dubiously at the two men who channeled so innocently. They would eventually go mad; that was what happened to men who channeled the One Power, in time. She had obviously had a terrible mishap with that Portal Stone. But, she followed the directions Liandrin gave her to the letter. What had gone wrong?

Suddenly, the tall, rather handsome man she'd been looking at dissolved into, of all things, a black dog. "Listen, Sirius is called Padfoot when he's a dog, okay? Just call him Padfoot," Harry explained in a rush as the flames in the fireplace grew green, and a plump, older woman emerged. Nadiera gasped in astonishment. But she got over it quickly when she saw Madam Pomfrey approaching.

"Oh, thank the Light! A woman who can channel! I need Healing. I have been told by this young man that you are very skilled at the Talent," Nadiera told her.

"Let's just take a look at you, young lady..." Madame Pomfrey said. Nadiera showed her the injured hip, and Harry took a short walk over to Padfoot, who was watching very intently as Madame Pomfrey worked her magic on Nadiera.

"There! Just a bit of rest now, and you'll be right as rain!" Madame Pomfrey announced.

Nadiera stood up, and tried walking. Smiling, she turned back to Madam Pomfrey and said, "I could never have done Healing like this myself. Are you Yellow Ajah? You must be."

"Er, Ajah?" Madame Pomfrey asked.

"Long story, Madame Pomfrey. I bet Professor Dumbledore knows what she's talking about," Harry said.

"Professor Dumbledore..." Nadiera repeated thoughtfully. Then she rounded on Madame Pomfrey. "Is he _another_ man who channels?" she demanded.

"Yeah, he is," Harry answered for Madame Pomfrey.

"And you work side by side with him? Aren't you afraid he will go mad?" Nadiera gasped.

"Oh, he's gone a bit mad a long while ago, but 'tis only the kind that make him endearing, really," Madame Pomfrey answered dreamily. Only a wide grin on Harry's face made Madame Pomfrey snap out of it and clear her throat.

"You mean he doesn't...break things? Melt things? Shoot lightning form his fingers and kill people with it?" Nadiera asked.

"Oh no! Not Albus! He's a gentle old fellow, really!" Madame Pomfrey laughed.

Nadiera's brows furrowed in doubt. "This, I have to see! A man who has channeled for many years who hasn't gone mad!" she told Madame Pomfrey.

"Well, he is at Hogwart's now. Would you like to come to Hogwart's with me?" she offered.

"Yes, where is it?" Nadiera asked as she gathered that small knapsack of hers and stood before Madame Pomfrey.

"Through the fire..." Harry grinned as he rose from his seat. "May I come too, Madame Pomfrey? Please?"

"I'm ceratin that Albus would like to see you, Harry dear. We use Floo Powder to travel by fire," she explained to Nadiera, who looked at the fire with apprehension.

"Watch!" Harry told Nadiera as he took a pinch of Floo Powder from Madame Pomfrey's little pouch and tossed it in the fire. The flames turned green, and Nadiera watched as Harry entered the flames and yelled, "Hogwart's hospital wing!" In a blink, he was gone.

"Now, you try," Madame Pomfrey offered Nadiera. Nadiera thought to herself that it was a good thing for them that she was always the adventurous sort. She took a pinch of the Floo Powder, then asked Madame Pomfrey, "No channeling? No weaving of Fire?" Madame Pomfrey had a blank look on her face. "I suppose not, then," Nadiera sighed. Then she tossed the pinch into the flames, and stepped into them. Marvelling that she wasn't burning to death, she copied Harry and yelled "Hogwart's hospital wing!"

Padfoot watched from a corner as Madame Pomfrey took her leave with the Floo Powder also. As soon as she was gone, Sirius emerged from his dog form, and hurried to the fire before it turned orange again. He tossed his own Floo Powder into the fireplace, stepped in, and yelled, "Professor Dumbledore's office!" After all, he wasn't about to let that Nadeira out of his sight...


	4. Dinner with Dumbledore

A Different Kind of Magic

Chapter 3: Dinner with Dumbledore

Nadiera's arrival by Floo Powder into the Hogwart's hospital wing was anything but graceful. She decided silently that she'd much rather ride a horse, as rough for her as that activity was. To her satisfaction, at least, Harry Potter, who must have done this before, didn't fare much better.

"Travelling by Floo Powder isn't ideal, is it?" he grinned as he looked at Nadiera's dishevelled appearance.

"How is the 'dog' going to get here?" she asked him.

"Oh, don't worry, he's got his ways. He'll be around soon enough. Miss him already, do you?" Harry teased.

Nadiera turned her hazel eyes on him and sneered. "I miss no man. I have no use for them."

"Whatever..." Harry sighed, sounding very unconvinced. "I may wear glasses, but I'm not blind," he murmured as an afterthought.

"You may not be blind," a sharp, nasty voice barked behind them, "but you are exceedingly stupid." Harry turned and frowned at the man who had come into the Hospital wing.

"Of all the people I had to meet up with first..." Harry grumbled. "Snape!"

"That's Professor Snape to you! And I want to know what you are here instead of with the Dursleys on Privet Drive where you belong!" Snape demanded.

_"Another_ man who can channel? Are there any women in this tower who can channel?" Nadiera cut in. Snape glared at her.

"Well, if Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout are here, there's two right there," Harry answered for Snape, who was still glaring. Or, maybe not glaring, but staring.

"How is your hip doing after you trip with Floo Powder, dear?" Madame Pomfrey asked Nadiera as she emerged from the fireplace.

"Quite well, Madame Pomfrey. As I said, your Talent with Healing is excellent. I'm sure that any of my Sisters of the Yellow Ajah would be glad to learn from you," Nadiera smiled.

"Ajah?" Snape muttered. But his musings were cut short, because Professor Dumbledore made his entrance, along with a large black dog at his side.

"I understand that you wanted to meet me, young lady." His blue eyes twinkled behind his half-moon spectacles as he introduced himself. "I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," he announced, and held out his hand.

Nadiera eyed his hand, and then dubiously shook it. "I am Nadiera Godesin, Aes Sedai of the Red Ajah. Witchcraft, did you say? Do you mean to tell me that you teach people how to channel the One Power here?"

"We teach the Magical Arts here," Dumbledore clarified. "Away from the prying eyes of Muggles, Hogwart's is the place for a young witch or wizard to learn the Craft."

"But, the White Tower in Tar Valon is where young girls go to be trained to channel, if they have the ability. I've never known of anywhere else that it could be tought. What country have I landed in?" She looked at Snape and then rambled, "Saldea? There are a lot of mountains here..."

"This is Scotland, Miss Godesin," Snape cut in.

"Scotland? But I have never heard of Scotland..." Nadiera shook her head as she sat on the edge of one of the beds. Padfoot wagged his tail and settled next to her, putting his chin on her lap. Nadiera idly patted his head, lost in thought.

"What is that mongrel doing here?" Snape spat.

"He came with Harry, Severus," Dumbledore answered.

"Well, both the dog and Harry should not be here!" Snape pointed out.

"I wanted to make sure Nadiera was alright!" Harry protested.

"Well, your strange witch is just fine, so now you can leave. I don't want to see your face back in here until September 1st, Potter! It's bad enough I must see it then, I..." Suddenly, Snape's mouth stopped running. In fact, it hung open, and try as he might, Snape could not close it!

Harry could see thin strands of power flowing from Nadiera's fingers. Unfortunately, Snape seemed to be able to see them also, because he grabbed for them with his hands. Nadiera wove some more flows of Air around Snape, turning the air around him to the feel of thick mud.

"I wonder how it is he can see the flows of Air," Nadiera frowned.

"We _all_ could," Harry reported to her.

"But, men aren't supposed to be able to see flows of _saidar_, unless..." she trailed off, as Snape broke free of Nadiera's Air flows.

"Unless what?" Snape growled.

"Unless everyone here uses the One Power in a completely different manner than I do," Nadiera concluded.

"I can safely say that you are most likely correct. I've never seen magic done without a wand, nor have I ever seen someone use magic in that manner," Dumbledore told her. "I believe everyone's temper will be more even if we were to go to dinner now. Especially poor Severus. I fear he gets rather nasty if he has an empty stomach, and I also admit that I am very curious about you, Miss Godesin."

"Yes," Snape hissed, "And we'll give some table scraps to the _dog_ too."

At dinner, which included Dumbledore, Harry, Nadiera, Madame Pomfrey, and a sulky Snape, the conversation inevitably turned toward the vast difference between Nadiera's method of doing magic and theirs. Harry was glad; not only was he curious about the Ajah business, but he also didn't really want to talk about his disastrous driving lesson, especially in front of Snape.

"Well, the way I was taught, there are two halves to the One Power, _saidar_, the female half, and _saidin_, the male half. I was under the impression that only women could use _saidar_, and only men could use _saidin_, but, apparently, I must be mistaken. I think that you people use both _saidar_ and _saidin_. I never beleived that it was possible for both halves to be merged together like that..." Nadiera sighed. She seemed clearly disturbed about all this.

"Poppy told me that you thought that I surely must have gone mad from using magic for so long. Why did you think that I had gone mad?" Dumbledore asked her. Padfoot peeked over the edge of the table by Harry's side; he remembered Nadiera's fright when she had found men who could use magic. He was eager to hear her explanation.

_"Saidin,_ in my day, at least, has been left with a taint from the Dark One. It was a counterstroke, a move that would eventually lead to the Breaking of the World, because any male Aes Sedai inevitably went mad from using the One Power. They wreaked havoc on the earth, boiled the oceans dry, and tossed the fate of the world to the four winds. By the time the last male Aes Sedai died, the earth was forever altered.

"For this reason, only women could be Aes Sedai after that. Our home is Tar Valon, the city that sits in the shadow of Dragonmount. The White Tower is the headquarters for the Aes Sedai, the center of Tar Valon. I'm sure that means nothing to you; it appears as though the Breaking of the World might never happen here, or won't happen for a thousand years or more. I don't know."

"The White Tower, is that where you teach people, you said?" Harry asked her.

"We seach for girls who can channel; either they are born with the spark, or they can be taught. For instance, I am certain that any girl or woman that is in this building can be taught to channel _saidar._ We take them to Tar Valon to study in the Tower. Not very many of them ever finish their training. My own mother left the tower while still a Novice. But if a girl perseveres, she becomes a full Aes Sedai. We sometimes call it 'raised to the shawl' because she earns the right to wear a formal shawl representing the Ajah she chooses to join."

"I saw your red-fringed shawl in your knapsack. So, that shawl means you're Red Ajah, right? What's the difference between Ajahs?" Harry asked.

"There are seven Ajahs in the White Tower, societies of Aes Sedai who each have a bit of a different view of how the One Power is best used. Each Ajah is represented by a color. Brown, white, gray, yellow, green, blue, and red. Brown Sisters devote their energies to learning and knowledge. The White Ajah seek truth and philosopy, rather than worldly knowledge. Grey Sisters believe the One Power is best used to mitigate and seek balance between nations. Yellows, as you might have guessed, are the healers of the White Tower. The Green Ajah stand prepared for _Tarmon Gai'don,_ the Last Battle that is predicted to take place between the Dark One and the Dragon Reborn, who I personally pray never actually gets reborn. The Blue Ajah finds causes to crusade for."

"Oh." Harry finally sounded like he understood it a little better. "But, what about the Red Ajah? What do you do with magic?"

"Ah!" Nadiera smirked, "do you really want to know?"

"Yeah!" answered Harry.

Nadiera's smirk grew wider. "The Red Ajah, which, incidentally, happens to be the largest of the Ajahs, dedicates itself to finding men who can channel--and gentling them."

"What do you mean, _gentling?"_ Snape asked with a priceless look of fright on his face.

"We cut them off from the One Power, so they cannot channel any longer," Nadiera smiled.


	5. Floo Powder

A Different Kind of Magic

Chapter 4: Floo Powder

Snape choked on his stew. Harry squirmed, and Professor Dumbledore frowned grimly. Even Padfoot whined.

"Oh, don't worry," Nadiera told her fellow diners, "I can't do it alone. I'd need some of my fellow Sisters with me." To her secret satisfaction, this didn't seem to reassure Snape in the least. "Dessert, anyone?" she asked.

Oddly, everyone seemed to lose their appetite. Padfoot scurried with his tail between his legs into the corner of the room. Snape would have done the same, if he were able to change into a dog. Instead, he rose from the table, and muttered, "Excuse me," while flaring his oversized nostrils and glaring murderously at Nadiera with his black eyes. The others watched as he stalked off.

"Goodness, Severus usually never passes on dessert," Dumbledore mentioned, mostly to ease some of the sudden tension in the room. Harry swallowed bleakly in response. "This, _gentling_ that you do. How is it done?" he asked her.

"I've never known a man to do it. I'm sure before the Breaking of the World, he would have been able to, but that knowledge of how he would have done it is lost. The point is, even if I told you how to do it, you wouldn't be able to. Only a woman channeling _saidar_ would be able to gentle a man," Nadiera explained.

"And not by herself, like you were saying, right?" Harry rushed to say.

"No. She would have to be linked with a certain number of other Aes Sedai to do it," she clarified.

"You wouldn't want to go and uh, gentle, any of us, would you? I mean, we've been nice to you and everything, right?" Harry asked worriedly. Of all his luck, to have to run over with a car the kind of witch that had the ability to take your magical powers away from you!

Nadiera seemed to know what Harry was thinking, because she said, "Harry, I can't blame you for hitting me with the, what did you call it, a car? I appeared out of absolutely nowhere right before your car rolled along in my direction. I tried using flows of Air, like I had used on Snape, only there wasn't enough time to stop the car. Besides, Madame Pomfrey has Healed me as good as new, so no real harm has been done by you. And besides, the Red Ajah is supposed to gentle men that can channel because they believe he will go mad if they do not. For all I can see, it doesn't look like any of you are Light-blinded like the male Aes Sedai of old." Nadiera paused for a moment, while Padfoot came back, wagging his tail happily, to her side. "Although," she pondered as she patted Padfoot on the head, "I think Snape could use a good fright."

Harry grinned widely, but Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Severus Snape is really not as bad as everyone thinks. He simply has a rough nature, prickly as a cactus sometimes. And having the dog here agitated him, I think. Harry, that reminds me. Severus is right; you need to go back to the Dursleys before it gets too much later." Harry sighed sadly, and Dumbledore added, "I'm certain that the Weasleys will be inviting you to The Burrow anytime now."

Harry looked at Dumbledore, saw the fixed look in his blue eyes, and knew there would be no turning him around. So, he rose from his seat, and knelt down beside Padfoot.

"I'll see you soon, Padfoot," he said softly. "Counting the days..." Padfoot gave a great, booming bark, stood up and wagged his tail, as Harry stood up and looked at Nadiera. "It was nice meeting you. And I hope everything works out for you. Take care of the dog for me; he seems to like you."

"Poppy, if you'll come with me back to the hospital wing so we can see Harry off..." Dumbeldore said. Madame Pomfrey nodded in Nadiera's direction, then left the room with Harry and the headmaster.

Nadiera was still stroking Padfoot's head, but not paying attention. She seemed lost in thought, until, of course, Padfoot's head felt different. She looked down and saw not the dog, but the man that he really was. Sirius looked up at her, and she gave a start. His eyes danced with amusement at her response to his trick.

"Don't do that again! I've never seen anyone change into an animal form before, and to me, that's quite abnormal!" she sniffed.

"Well, if you look at me now, you'll see that I'm quite normal," Sirius assured her.

"Somehow, I don't think 'normal' applies to you in any sense," she huffed. _No,_ a small voice inside her head teased, _he isn't a normal man at all. He's far too handsome to be normal!_

"Are you blushing?" he asked her.

_Light!_ she thought to herself. "No I am not blushing, much," she growled. She felt the heat creeping into her cheeks, so she could not actually lie and deny that heat. _The bloody Three Oaths don't work too well in situations like this, do they?_ "Please don't talk like that around me again," she told him primly, while trying to get herself under control.

"Talk like what? Oh! Talking about looking at me? Okay," Sirius sighed with a false tone of resignation, "I won't tell you to look at me again. But then, just try not looking at me, instead of looking at me every chance you get... I'm starting to feel like I'm some sort of object here. It's making me uncomfortable. You don't mind if I look at you, do you?" he smirked as he winked at her.

Nadiera stood up and looked for all the world like she was about ready to call lightning down on his head. "I can see why Snape doesn't like you! You are insufferable!" she railed.

Sirius just laughed as he lounged on the carpet. "Maybe you and I can go to Diagon Alley tomorrow. Padfoot needs to be walked there. And don't worry, Padfoot will stay by your side all day, because he rather likes getting patted on the head by you." Nadiera was puffing up again, so he added, "just as much as you like to pat him on the head..."

"Fine! What's in this alley place?" she demanded.

"Oh, lots of things vital to the survival of any witch or wizard. Besides, I have a feeling you don't want to spend all day over here, keeping Dumbledore company. Oh, and by the way, did you know that your face is about as red as that shawl you wear?" he told her.

Nadiera made a face that Sirius was not likely to forget; it resembled a goddess of war statue he'd once seen. Stonily, she grunted, "Until tomorrow." She stalked out much like Snape had before.

"No, I don't think I've gotten enough of that woman yet..." he murmured. It shocked him for a moment when he gave a thought to how much he _did_ want of her. He figured he'd better turn himself back into a dog before he went to sleep tonight, or he wouldn't be getting much sleep at all. At least as a dog, he didn't have human dreams, and he knew she'd be in every one of them tonight.

**********

Nadiera spent the night at Hogwart's. Since it was summer, there was plenty of room for her in any one of the dormitories. She was shocked at how many classrooms there were in Hogwart's, and how many beds in each dormitory. In her own White Tower, very rarely was there more than 40 Novices at any one time. The ability to channel had become less and less common as the thousands of years since the Breaking of the World had passed. There seemed to be far more wizards and witches in this world than there were Aes Sedai in her world.

The next day, Nadiera prepared for her day at Diagon Alley. She dressed in her one other dress, which was a russet color, with a square neckline. She braided her shoulder length sandy hair, and clasped a thin woolen cloak around her shoulders. She wore no jewelry; she kept her Great Serpent ring in her pocket. Traditionally, Aes Sedai would wear that ring wherever they went, but it was certainly not forbidden to remove it if the need arose. She didn't like wearing it; her ageless face was enough to make people take a second look at her and suspect her of being a "Tar Valon Witch." She didn't need to make it worse by wearing the ring as well. Aes Sedai were not always welcome in her world, in fact, many people hated her for what she was.

Nadiera made her way down to the Great Hall to meet the black dog, wondering if people in this world regarded witches and wizards with the same sort of contempt.

Professor Dumbledore also met her there, and Padfoot wagged his tail slowly as Nadiera approached. "I understand that you are planning to go to Diagon Alley; I think it would be wisest to use Floo Powder to get there. Judging from the look on your face, you've used Floo Powder before. Good, good..." Dumbledore smiled as Nadiera's stomach flinched. Padfoot trotted along to one of the many firplaces in the Great Hall.

Dumbledore glanced about, making sure no one was around, and then he nodded. Sirius reappeared, and tossed Floo Powder into the flames. He dashed into the bright emerald fire and said "Lupin's Place!" He disappeared. Nadiera took a pinch of the Floo Powder and tossed it into the fire like she had done the last time. She stepped into the emerald flames and said "Lup--ahem--place," because she'd just inhaled a bit of soot.

She spun and spun in place until she was very certain she would heave up any breakfast she'd had. And then, she was tossed out of the new fireplace unceremoniously. She landed face down with a muffled "oof!"

Nadiera looked up. She didn't see Sirius, or even Padfoot, anywhere. She would have risen from her prone position, except she heard muffled noises coming from the next room from where she was. It was dreary and there was a bad feeling to the air, like the person who lived here was a Darkfriend. _"Sirius!"_ she whispered fiercely, but there was no sign of him. Nadiera had a sinking feeling that this wasn't "Lupin's place." But the question was, where did she wind up landing?


	6. Knockturn and Diagon Alleys

A Different Kind of Magic

Chapter 5: Knockturn and Diagon Alleys

Nadiera looked around the room, which was very dimly lit. She knew there was someone who could channel in the very next room, though the one she was in was presently empty. It looked like it was a sitting room in a small sort of boarding house. The next room had a door that was slightly open, and a sliver of light came from there, cutting across the sitting room with a sort of ominous quality. Nadiera crawled from the fireplace to the door, but stopped dead when she heard voices.

"You know my husband would have my head if he knew I was here with you like this," a thin, feamle voice breathed. "He'd think I was interfering."

"Narcissa, you know as well as I do that he wouldn't have a thing to say about it. After all, both you and your husband are my servants. You both serve in different ways, that is all." Nadiera held her breath; the sound of that voice chilled her terribly.

"Still, he thinks he is the only one who serves you," Narcissa told him. Nadiera heard a sound follow, one that sounded like she was experiencing something rather painful.

"You belong to me. As does your husband, and soon, your son as well. I look very much forward to the day when I have all the Malfoys in my service, moving toward out mutual goals. Your husband should be proud; he not only can offer his own services, but also that of his beautiful wife and his _very_ powerful son. He shall be most exalted of my followers..."

Whoever this man was, Nadiera thought, he made her blood boil. She heaved herself off the floor, and made her way to the front door. But, out of nowhere, the most horrifying looking man appeared out of thin air. His eyes looked like a serpent's, and glowed red. His complexion was paler than any she'd ever seen, and he stood a head taller than her. He wore a thin robe which hid very little of the rest of his skeletal body. Nadiera's stomach turned as the creature smirked. "Well, it seems that with Wormtail, it's either feast or famine. Last week, I was climbing the walls, and today, I get two in a row..."

"Who is Wormtail, and who are you? Never mind, I don't care who you are, I'm leaving. I'm not very proficient with that bloody Floo Powder..." Nadiera huffed, then went to open the door.

"What is your hurry? You really don't know who I am? Very well, I'll play along with you. I call myself Voldemort. Everyone else calls me either the Dark Lord, or Master..."

"Take your hand off me. I am leaving now," Nadiera told Voldemort quite firmly. He simply laughed coldly and seized her hand more tightly, pulling it away from the doorknob. Nadiera took her free hand and slapped him in the face.

Voldemort slapped her back, and then laughed. "Ah, so you like to have it rough? Very well, I can play that game well; I still have plenty of stamina left..." Nadiera struggled with him, and very nearly broke free of him. He wasn't using the One Power to subdue her, oddly enough. He was only using his own physical strength, which was more than enough, as it turned out. Voldemort managed to reach the neckline of her dress and tear it open. Nadiera gasped as her entire body was pulled toward him in that movement. He laughed as he grasped her breasts with his long, thin fingers...

_Not again!_ was all she could think as she found herself embracing _saidar_ and slamming Voldemort with flows of Air. Gasping with shock and with the force of being driven into the wall with magic, Voldemort could only watch as the woman made strands of magic weave around him. He was sorely tempted to use magic, but he suddenly found that he couldn't!

"You bitch! What have you done to me?" he demanded.

"I'm putting a shield around you. In fact, I think I'll leave you just like that..." Nadiera smiled as she tied the flows of Air and Spirit together, leaving Voldemort spread eagle on the floor of the sitting room. She knew the shield would only be temporary; either one of Voldemort's followers would free him or in time, he'd free himself. But this was certainly enough to keep him from following her as she left. "Let Wormtail free you; he seems to do you so many favors, doesn't he?" Nadiera spat, and left.

She pulled her cloak around herself, as she had to hide the damage that beast had done to her dress. Where was Sirius? When she got ahold of him, she was going to... She shuddered then, and burst out crying. She'd almost been raped! The shock of it was wearing off, and now, she was getting angry. She pushed her way past a pair of surly-looking dwarves and an old hag as she strode down the street.

At the corner, she found it got much lighter and brighter. The late morning sun was basking the bustling town with it glow. She regretted that she had to wear the cloak; it would have been a perfect day to walk without it. With a sigh, she looked around for a black dog wandering the street.

So intent was she on her mission, she failed to notice the tall man walking right into her. She jumped and looked up. A man with a slightly shabby shade hat on his head, and gray eyes to compliment his graying hair looked back down at her. "Forgive me, Madam. I was so intent on my search, I didn't see you." He scanned the busy street and seemed to see something. "Padfoot," the man hissed. Nadiera turned back around at the sound of Padfoot's name.

"Where is he?" she demanded of the stranger.

"Er, you know Padfoot?" the man stammered.

"Where is he?" she repeated. "I was supposed to go with him to..."

"Oh! You're the one he's looking for. He was frantic when he found you didn't follow him."

"Ah...So you are Lupin, I take it?" Nadiera asked.

"Yes," Lupin said shortly. "Let's find the poor beast before he gets into trouble."

Fortunately, Padfoot scampered over to Lupin and Nadiera. She patted him on the head, and his tail was wagging. "Come along, before the dogcatchers see you..." Lupin muttered.

Nadiera realized something suddenly. Why did Sirius run around like a dog all the time? Even at dinner at Hogwart's, he remained in his dog form until everyone left. Was he hiding for some reason? Come to think of it, she could even remember Harry making a fuss about Sirius "being seen." Who was looking for him?

"Um, Lupin? Who are the 'dog catchers?'" Nadiera asked.

Padfoot began barking very loudly, to distract Lupin from answering her question. Nadiera became nervous. What were these men up to? The Red Ajah was right, she decided firmly in her mind. Men simply cannot be trusted to wield the One Power. Even if they do not go completely mad, they are irresponsible, and dangerous. She shuddered when recalling Voldemort's attack. She couldn't get it out of her mind....

When they finally reached Lupin's shabby flat, only then, once the door was shut, did Sirius transform back into his human form.

"Are you cold, Nadiera?" Sirius asked.

"Cold?" she repeated back to him.

"You've got your cloak wrapped around you like you are cold," he pointed out.

"I er, had a bit of a mishap with the Floo Powder," she muttered.

"You certainly must have; I saw you coming from Knockturn Alley," Lupin frowned.

"What happened to you?" Sirius questioned her.

She couldn't lie and say "nothing." So, she instead asked, "What makes you think something happened?"

"Take off your cloak and make yourself at home, Nadiera," Lupin offered. She smiled, but didn't take off her cloak.

"Things happen in Knockturn Alley, Nadiera. Tell me what happened," Sirius insisted.

"I told you, I had a mishap with the Floo Powder. My dress was ripped from the mishap," she said. There, it was the truth, but not all of it, obviously. Aes Sedai cannot lie outright, but they don't necessarily have to tell the truth, either.

"Oh, then you need to go to the dressmaker, Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, to get it repaired. She can fix it for you in a jif, I wager," Lupin told her.

Sirius looked skeptical. "Why didn't you just say so, Nadiera?" he asked.

Nadiera decided it was time to stop Sirius' interrogation before it got out of control. "I want to know what you are hiding from! Why can't you walk around like a normal human being out in public?" she demanded.

Lupin looked sharply at Sirius. "How can she not know?" he asked Sirius. With a sigh, Sirius told Lupin the whole story of Harry's driving lesson, and Nadiera's appearance out of nowhere.

"She knows next to nothing about the wizarding world even though she is a witch. Excuse me, Aes Sedai. My mistake..." Sirius growled at Nadiera's annoyed expression at being called a "witch."

"You didn't answer my question," she frowned.

"Well, turnabout is fair play. You didn't answer _my_ question!" Sirius argued.

Lupin fidgeted as they squabbled. He suspected that something happened that Nadiera didn't want to talk about. He was going to have to tell Sirius in private that he'd have to leave her alone, that she'd tell him at some point if it was important. She needed to know about Sirius Black being wanted by the Dementors for murders that he never committed, though. She would have to know the secret in order to keep it a secret. After she knows the truth, she'd be better off locked away at Hogwart's until she could get back to wherever she came from. She was entirely too dangerous left to roam around wherever she wanted...

"I think," he said over their two voices, "that we had best get started with our shopping. Nadiera? Sirius?" He met their twin glares with aplomb. "I would hate to interrupt your little spat, but we can hash this all out later." Nadiera nodded curtly, and then stood up, pulling the cloak tighter around herself. Sirius sighed and in a blink of an eye, Padfoot returned, lovable as ever. Lupin led the way as they all left his little flat above the apothecary.

**********

Peter Pettigrew returned to the boarding house in Knockturn Alley, and when he opened the front door, he got the shock of his life. The Dark Lord was tied up by strands of glowing power. which was tied at the end like someone would tie a knot at the end of a net to keep oranges inside. He gaped at the sight.

"Don't just stand there!" Voldemort hissed. "Help me out of this thing!"

Peter shook his head very slightly, like someone who was not refusing, but couldn't see how he could help. Could he just untie the magical threads? He took out his wand and probed the threads thoughtfully.

"I could feel that, Wormtail. I think that's how you do it," Voldemort coached him.

"How did this happen my lord?" Peter asked. "Who did this?"

"That _wench_ you sent me!" Voldemort accused.

"I sent no one, Master!" Peter protested.

"Never mind. Just keep working on it." Peter resumed probing the threads. He would use the wand and let the thread stick to it like static cling. In this manner, he was able to begin unravelling the knot. Still, it took almost a half hour for him to completely undo it.

Voldemort clawed his way out of the threads, and they dissolved. For a few seconds, he actually looked grateful to Peter for his help, but then his expression hardened. "Whoever that bitch was, she is going to pay for this humiliation. I never forget someone who crosses me. She will not get away with this..." he vowed. Peter shivered.

**********

Many miles away, Harry Potter jumped up from his sleep. He dreamed about Voldemort again! His scar even felt a bit hot. This was what he got for sleeping late.

He looked around, and remembered that he'd gotten to Ron's house very late last night. That had been a surprise, the instant invitation to the Burrow coming on the heels of his visit to Hogwart's. Not that he was going to complain, mind. But sleeping at odd times made him have odd dreams, ones that seemed so real. And they were always about Voldemort. This time, he remembered that Voldemort had been tied up with magic the same way he's seen Snape tied up. only Snape hadn't been tied up nearly as well. Only one person could have done that; Nadiera! How did she get mixed up with Voldemort?

He sat at the cluttered desk in Ron's room, and took out a sheet of parchment and a quill and ink. He wrote a letter to Sirius; he always wrote letters to Sirius if he had dreams like that, or if his scar hurt. It was a quick note. He had it done in no time, and rolled it up to send with Hedwig as soon as the ink dried.


	7. Rosebud

A Differnt Kind of Magic

Chapter 6: Rosebud

Nadiera made her way around Diagon Alley for the rest of the day. First to Gringott's Bank. The goblins, naturally, had never seen coins like hers. They were amused by the motif of a woman holding a flame--it was the first time in a while that they had seen currency depicting someone doing magic. Therefore, they gave her many gold galleons, silver sickles, and bronze knuts in exchange for her Tar Valon marks. She carried it with her in her small knapsack, though Lupin and Padfoot seemed to think this was a bad idea.

"Aren't you worried that someone might try to rob you?" Lupin fretted as they all crossed the street to Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

Nadiera frowned and answered, "Just let someone try to rob me! I don't seem to recall bonding you as my Warder!" Lupin frowned more deeply, and Padfoot barked in protest. "I will go in here while you two do whatever it was that you needed to do. I will meet you by the place with the brooms in the windows in an hour, " she instructed Lupin. He nodded and took Padfoot with him.

Nadiera's shopping in Madame Malkin's was successful. Not only did she get her dress mended (with a quick wave of the wand), she also purchased several new robes. She was glad that Madame Malkin didn't ask how she had torn the neckline of her dress like that.

After meeting Lupin and Padfoot in front of the broom store, which was really called Quality Qudditch Supplies, they had a bit of lunch. "What is Quidditch? Why do they sell brooms and uniforms there? Is it a game played with brooms?" she asked in confusion.

"Why, Quidditch is played while flying on brooms. Don't people where you come from fly on brooms?" Lupin asked.

"Fly on a broom? You mean straddle a sweeping broom and just take off? Light, no!" Nadiera laughed. Suddenly, she had an image in her mind of Aes Sedai flying out of the White Tower windows on brooms. She laughed harder; the very idea was absurd. No one has been able to fly in any manner since the Age of Legends.

"Sometime, we'll have to show you how it's done." Lupin smiled. "Harry's excellent at it; he could teach you how to do it better than anyone I know, though Sirius is also a very good broom flyer. However, these days he prefers alternate means of flying," Lupin added.

After lunch, the three of them explored a bit more of Diagon Alley, and then, it was time to return to Hogwart's. Oddly enough, it was Lupin who insisted on this.

"Hogwart's is a safe place for you, and I am certain that Albus Dumbledore wouldn't mind in the least if you were to stay there," Lupin argued.

"I don't want to impose myself on him," Nadiera told Lupin. Truth be told, if any of her fellow Red Ajah sisters had been in this situation, with all of these men who could channel surrounding them, she didn't know if they would have handled it as well. She was having a difficult enough time with it.

But in the end, Nadiera was sent back to Hogwart's via Floo Powder, and she emerged from the fire place in the Great Hall of Hogwart's vowing that she was going to find some other means of getting around besides that bloody Floo Powder!

Severus Snape was in the Hall when she arrived, and hurried away rather than helped her up. She didn't care; she liked him almost as little as he liked her. No doubt, the idea of having a woman under the roof of Hogwart's who had the ability to cut people off from the One Power made him very uneasy. He still didn't know that it took more than a dozen Aes Sedai linked to gentle a man or still a woman. Well, she sniffed, she wasn't about to tell him anything to give him peace of mind.

She returned to the dormitory she'd slept in the night before. She began unpacking the robes she'd purchased, and smiled at the choices she'd made. She never used to worry much about dressing herself up; she never was interested in attracting a man certainly. But now, her new clothes seemed to be more becoming to her than her previous wardrobe. Why had she chosen these robes? Why did she keep asking herself, as she bought them, how would Sirius like her dressed in this?

Sirius Black was disrupting her peace of mind already, and she'd only known him one day! Most Aes Sedai didn't bother trying to attract men to them; most men could not handle the idea of being married to a woman who, for all intents and purposes, was more powerful than they were. And she was glad too, because she had no use for men, or had any real interest in them except to see if they could channel. Now, she was panting after this Sirius Black like the worst of the Green Ajah would! They loved men, unlike the sensible Red Ajah!

But, she couldn't stay too angry at him; all she had to do was recall his handsome face (the few times he'd shown it!) and her anger melted away. She sighed and turned around.

Sirius was standing in her doorway, and he had a piece of parchment in his hand, and a scowl on his face. "You had a run-in with Voldemort this morning. I can't believe you never said anything!" he growled.

"Who told you that?" Nadiera stammered.

"I have a letter from my godson. He saw what you had done to Voldemort." Sirius unrolled the parchment and began reading the letter.

_Dear Sirius,  
_

I came home from Hogwart's last night, only to get an invitation from Ron to go visiting to his house for the remainder of the summer. I got in there really late, so I slept in this morning. I had a really strange dream. I saw Voldemort all tangled in those threads that Nadiera uses. Then, I saw Wormtail untangling him, and all the while, Voldemort was telling Wormtail that he'd be trying to get revenge on her for what she did.

Sirius, I'm worried for her. I think Voldemort was very angry about her using a different kind of magic on him. Please warn her about him. I feel responsible for her being here in the first place. I don't want anything bad to happen to her.

Nadiera stood there, trapped, but angry nonetheless. "Harry does not have to feel responsible for me. Men! They refuse to acknowledge that a woman can take care of herself!"

"That is hardly the point! You very deliberately omitted the fact that you and Voldemort had an encounter this morning! Why would you do that?" Sirius demanded.

"I took care of him. There was no need to--"

"No need? He could have killed you! He kills witches and wizards sooner than he breathes sometimes!" Sirius yelled.

"He...he didn't kill me, obviously. Let's just leave it alone, Sirius."

"Let me warn you of something, Miss Aes Sedai. You may think that you are immune to him, but no one, except perhaps Dumbledore, is immune to him. I found that out the hard way."

"Is that why you hide your true self from the world? Because you are afraid of him? He is a beast, yes, but he is not invulnerable. I tied him in weaves of Air and Spirit," she told him.

Sirius snorted and said, "Yeah, and Wormtail untied it, I read. He's fine, now, and very upset with you. You must stay here at Hogwart's to keep yourself safe now."

Nadiera smiled tightly, and answered, "I go where I please, when I please. I can watch out for myself; I have been for all these years. Besides, there are ways to deal with Voldemort."

Sirius frowned, transformed into Padfoot, and trotted out. Nadiera huffed and put her new robes into a trunk. The Red Ajah take care of themselves, she thought furiously. They have no need for men, even if they are handsome. She turned around again to face the door, and this time, she had a new visitor.

"Professor Dumbledore told me that we have a new guest here at Hogwart's. I have been away for the summer holiday," the woman explained. Nadiera eyed her; she was tall, had her black hair in a tight bun at the back of her head, and wore small, rectangular glasses over her blue eyes. "I am Minerva McGonagall, Professor of Transfiguration," she added crisply.

"Oh, good! I've been wanting to meet you!" Nadiera smiled as she shook Minerva's hand.

"Really?" Minerva asked.

"Yes; Harry told me about you, and I have so many questions I want to ask you..." Nadiera answered. Minerva appeared a bit flattered; ususally, anytime she taught a class, it was to young people who had a questionable interest in what she taught, at best.

That night, Nadiera and Minerva had dinner in that small dining room, accompanied only by Padfoot, who sat in a corner staring at Nadiera the whole time. Basically, she grilled Minerva about everything she could, ranging from how she did magic to which girls in her classes were the brightest and had the most potential. If Minerva managed to get a bite of food in her mouth, it was immediately followed by another round of questions. Did she teach the boys in any different manner than the girls? Why did she use a wand to do magic? How much experience did she have in Healing?

By the time dinner was over, Nadiera had managed to convince Minerva to giving channeling the One Power a try. Minerva had admitted that she was indeed quite curious about how Nadiera's channeling differed from waving a wand and casting a spell.

Nadiera took Minerva back to her dormitory room, and Padfoot followed, which annoyed Nadiera. "Is this dog always underfoot?" Nadiera asked Minerva.

"I believe that he his Professor Dumbledore's dog, but, he seems to come and go..." Minerva answered thoughtfully. Dumbledore had strange pets, and stranger arrangements with people, and Minerva, for the most part, didn't question him. She had faith that he knew what he was doing. But she personally believed the "animal" to be an Animagus; since she was one herself, she could sense the ability in others.

"Ah, I see," Nadiera nodded. Now she understood; Padfoot must be spying for Dumbledore. She would have to remind herself to give him plenty of grief over the danger of his work the next time she could talk to him in human form. Imagine telling her where to go and not to go! She drew a deep breath, and smiled. "Ready to begin?"

"Tell me what I need to do," Minerva said.

"Well, when I was first taught to channel, I was instructed to learn how to get into the correct sort of mindset to channel _saidar_. In other words, what a woman essentially does is lets the One Power inside her, and then forms the Power into flows. There are five different types of Flows: Fire, Air, Earth, Water and Spirit. An Aes Sedai uses the different Flows like threads, and weaves the Flows together to do whatever she needs to do with the One Power. Right now, I am going to guide you into embracing _saidar_ and channeling one Flow of Fire. Close your eyes, and imagine that you see a rosebud. It can be pink, or red, or white, whatever color, but make certain it has a color. And you can even smell this rosebud..." Nadiera coached Minerva. Minerva meditated on a small red rosebud; it had a light scent, just as if it were about ready to open. "Now, imagine that _you_ are the rosebud. You are the petals, the scent, and you are just about ready to open." Minerva fused her consciousness into the rosebud she'd created in her mind. She liked this meditation; it was relaxing in a way. She heard Nadiera then say, "Now, imagine that you are blooming, just like the rose that you are."

Nadiera watched very intently as Minerva visualized her rose-self blooming. And, she suddenly saw the tell-tale glow of _saidar_ around Minerva. Minerva snapped out of the trance in a bit of shock, while Nadiera clapped her hands and smiled. "Wonderful! You got it on the first try!"

Minerva looked a bit shaken. "It was strange! I felt, suddenly, so much more _aware_ of the world. It was as if I were being bombarded with it!"

"That will pass, and quickly. Soon, you will come to appreciate the feeling of _saidar_ and the enhanced awareness that comes with it. Actually, you'll get to like it so much that you can run into danger of becoming addicted to it. I know of a woman who did that, an Aes Sedai, and she burned the ability to channel right out of herself because she wasn't careful not to draw in more than she could handle. But, I think you are level-headed enough to handle that temptation," Nadiera told Minerva.

After a few more tries of embracing _saidar_, Minerva was guided through making a small flame in the palm of her hand. Nadiera and Minerva passed the flame back and forth between them before Minerva was instructed to cut the Flow of Fire, and let go of _saidar_. With a satisfied smile, Nadiera concluded, "I would like to take these lessons farther, if you agree. I had never thought of teaching in the White Tower, but I find that I like teaching others. Especially if they all catch on as quickly as you did!"

"Ah, you've caught the teaching bug! I can tell you, a good student is a joyous thing to have in a class. You should really look into it, Miss Godesin."

Later, Nadiera took out a pen and parchment, and made a list. At the top, she wrote "Minerva McGonagall." She then tapped the feather against her lower lip in thought, and followed by writing, "Narcissa Malfoy." Nadiera was forming a plan, and she wanted to include Narcissa in this plan. She shuddered as she thought of this as-yet-unseen woman. She'd have to be in on her plan. But what if she is too afraid? Well, she'd just have to make it happen, for everyone's sake.

After all, the sooner her plan was implemented, the sooner Sirius Black would be free to be himself. Why his fate should matter to her, she didn't want to go there. She shoved it aside, and remembered duty. With a feeling of determination filling her, she found it hard to fall asleep at first, but finally, she found herself in a dreamless sleep.

Of course, she was unaware that Padfoot was sleeping just outside her door.

**********

Note: If you want to try out reading something of Robert Jordan's, I suggest looking at _From the Two Rivers,_ which is the first half of the first book of the Wheel of Time series. If you think you can handle the entire first book instead, then try _The Eye of the World_. You'll learn more about Aes Sedai, Warders, and all this other Wheel of Time stuff that you may have gotten confused about. Hey, it's what I'm reading while waiting for the next Harry Potter book to come out!


	8. Nadiera's Plan

A Different Kind of Magic

Chapter 7: Nadiera's Plan

Now that she knew for certain that she could indeed teach the witches here how to channel, Nadiera requested an audience with Dumbledore. In her world, usually an Aes Sedai would not _request_ an audience with anyone, but would rather invite themselves to the Royal Court of whichever Queen or King she happened to need to see. Or, many times the Amyrlin Seat, the "queen" of the Aes Sedai, would instruct a Sister to go where she was needed. However, Nadiera knew that these were special circumstances. This whole place was filled to the brim with people that could channel. This made negotiation a far different task than she was used to.

When she recieved a message by owl that Dumbledore would meet with her at his office, she prepared herself. She selected one of her new dresses, one of pale yellow with darker saffron embroidery. It was attractive, yet conservative enough to wear to a formal meeting. She even decided to armor herself even more, by adding her gold Great Serpent ring on her right hand, and her red-fringed shawl. Though Dumbledore would hardly know the significance of her attire, anyone familiar with Aes Sedai would know that only on the most formal occasions, namely meetings with the Amyrlin Seat or a Queen or King, would require an Aes Sedai to wear the shawl.

She arrived at his office at the appointed time, but she stopped and stared when she saw the splendor of it. The place reminded her of the Amyrlin's Study. But this fellow had some of the most unusual objects in the circular room on display. Paintings that depicted other witches and wizards, presumably Dumbledore's many predecessors, that seemed to follow her with their eyes as she walked around the room. Objects that appeared most fragile and delicate, made of silver or pewter or gold, that were mechanical, or made chiming sounds. A very dusty and dirty looking black rag that might very well be a hat. She almost touched it, and realized that it was a _ter'angreal,_ an object that used the One Power. In the short time that she had been at Hogwart's, Nadiera had found that these people tended to use _angreal_ constantly, in form of their wands. She had learned of a fellow named Ollivander who makes these wands. He obviously had the Talent to make _angreal_ which actually was a Talent lost to Aes Sedai in her world. Using these _angreal_ was what made these people able to do some of the more powerful things they do, like changing one thing into another. _Transfiguration._ Or imposing their will on time and space and even people's minds. _Charms._

"Miss Godesin," Dumbledore said. She gave a bit of a start and looked up at Dumbledore standing beside her. "Thank you for coming. If you would please follow me," he said as he guided her to his actual office.

They settled across from each other at his desk. "Now, what brings you to my office, Miss Godesin?" Dumbledore asked.

"I'm here to talk about Voldemort," she stated.

"And what do you know of him?" Dumbledore asked her.

"From what I have heard, that he is very dangerous. Deadly, in fact, to people. He obviously had gone mad from using the One Power. In fact, I believe I have even seen evidence of it. His body is wasting away, and he looks as though he has gone through some sort of horrible transformation. It will be, of course, too late to save him. However, he must be stopped, and the sooner the better."

Dumbledore almost smiled and said, "I think I know where you are going with this, but please, continue."

"A few days ago, I met Minerva McGonagall. After I had dinner with her and discussed some things, I taught her how to touch the One Power. Professor, she caught on beautifully. I can teach some of the girls here how to channel."

"Indeed. They could probably learn. However, that might keep them from their vital studies here. How do you justify taking time from their normal course of study to dedicate time to learning your technique?" Dumbledore asked.

"I only need twelve more, besides myself. Twelve women channeling, with me as their guide, to link them. Thirteen Aes Sedai linked together are capapble of a great deal, Professor. Far more than Voldemort by himself, if you understand my meaning."

"You mean to teach the girls how to cut Volemort from his ability to use magic, don't you?" Dumbldore concluded.

"I realize that if there had been a way for this to have been done before, you would have done it. But, since I know how it is done, I can pass along the information to other women and girls. but they must learn to channel _saidar_ first. Then, ultimately, we can use the One Power to gentle Voldemort, and then, you can do with him as you see fit."

Nadiera fingered the red fringe on her shawl thoughtfully. If she were in her own world, only the Amyrlin Seat could command the Red Ajah to go out and hunt down men who are known to be able to channel. She had only last year gone and captured a man named Logain Ablar. He was claiming that he was the Dragon Reborn, all because he could channel. Well, she did what any self-respecting Red Sister would do; she helped capture him and bring him to the White Tower, where she also helped in actually gentling him. 

"If you can find some girls among our student body who can fit in the necessary schedule and your training, you may use some of them. I take it that you cannot teach boys how to do this? I know of one in particular that would be interested in stripping Voldemort of power. Ironically, he _had_ done it, once."

"Who? Sirius?" Nadiera asked Dumbledore.

"No, Harry Potter. Have you ever noticed that scar on his forehead? Well, there is quite a stroy behind it..." he told her. Dumbledore told Nadiera all about Harry Potter's brush with certain death. How Voldemort had lost his powers, and how most believed that he was dead.

"How did he return?" Nadiera asked.

"It was with the help of a few of his most loyal followers, as well as some insidious spells used to restore him, that Voldemort has been revived. I have no doubt that he is feverishly gathering as many wizards to his side as possible. He means to destroy the world as we know it and create a new one in which he would rule supreme over all. Any person unable to use magic would be annhilated. Any witch or wizard that dares oppose him would meet an even more unbearable fate than death."

"Then I must use whatever means necessary to cut him off as soon as I can get the last girl channeling a spark. He intends to gain some very powerful allies, including someone named Malfoy. Narcissa's son. Do you know who he is?" Nadiera asked.

"That is an avenue that is being covered by different angles, Miss Godesin. We all are aware what a disaster Voldemort's alliance with Draco Malfoy would be. Concern yourself with your mission, Miss Godesin. If I can be of any assistance to you, please don't hesitate to ask me."

"Well, there is one last thing. I would like access to your objects out there from time to time." Nadiera pointed to Dumbledore's outer office.

"Why, is there anything of interest out there that can help you?" Dumbledore asked in puzzlement.

"That ragged black hat out there is a magical object. How many others are there? Do you know how they are used? Cna you make a list?" Nadiera asked.

"I shall set myself to the task, Miss Godesin." They both rose, and Dumbledore offered his hand to Nadiera again. "Good luck with this plan, Miss Godesin," he said solmnly. Nadiera took his hand and shook it, sealing the pact. Now was the time for action. There was not a moment to lose.


	9. Making Connections

A Different Kind of Magic

Chapter 8: Making Connections

Weeks passed. Nadiera and Minerva had become virtually inseparable. Padfoot seemed to become a permanant fixture at Hogwart's, and he trailed behind the two witches, trying to make sense of what Nadiera was trying to accomplish by teaching Minerva this channeling business.

A few days before the official beginning of the school term, Padfoot and Nadiera went to the Burrow, the homestead of the Weasley family, where Harry was staying for the rest of his summer holiday. Nadiera had been a bit worried that she was imposing on the Weasleys at first, but soon, she, like anyone else who ever came to the Burrow, found herself feeling right at home.

In the evening, after a huge dinner out in the Weasley's backyard, Padfoot and Harry and Ron went off for a walk. Nadiera was left behind with Molly and Ginny.

"Harry had told us that you have been making progress in teaching Professor McGonagall how to do this different kind of Magic that you do," Ginny said as she went about clearing dishes from the table.

"Let's go inside so we can discuss this some more," Nadiera suggested as she aided Ginny with drinking glasses. When she and Molly and Ginny entered the kitchen, Nadiera continued speaking. "I've been teaching Minerva how to channel the One Power. That's the proper term for it. And I might add, she is a quick study. I bet you might catch onto it just as quickly as she did."

"Really? Do you think I can learn what you do?" Ginny asked.

"Why would you need to learn a different way of doing magic, Ginny?" her mother interrupted.

Nadiera smiled. "Think of it as broadening Ginny's horizons, Molly. In fact, I believe that you would also be able to channel. Who knows; you might be able to contribute very greatly to society because you learned how to channel."

Molly looked dubious, and began washing dishes. She waved her wand, and the dishes began washing themselves. Imagine, she thought suddenly to herself, using magic to contribute something to society! All she ever used magic for was chores! She began to get a bit disturbed about this train of thought. How dare this woman come here and just proceed to tell her that she was wasting her life by using magic in such an everyday fashion!

Ginny, however, was completely undistressed about the idea of learning a whole new way of doing magic. "How can we contribute to society by learning how to channel?" she asked Nadiera.

"Ginny..." Molly began, then stopped when she looked at her daughter's face. It was eager, excited. Did her daughter have more of a future than she did? She hoped that with all her heart. She never really worried that her sons would find a place in this life, aside from an occasional pang or two about her twin sons direction in life. But she worried that Ginny would inadvertantly follow in her footsteps. Not that raising a family was such a waste of time, but she always felt that there was _more_ that she was capable of doing. And it took this strange woman to bring those feelings to the surface again, after all this time. "How are we supposed to begin learning? I mean, Minerva McGonagall has lots of time on her hands now, before the school year begins. I don't have that kind of time to devote to learning this channeling business. She won't either, once school begins." Molly pointed out.

"We can begin right this moment," Nadiera told them. Ginny and Molly stared at eachother, then at Nadiera. "Let me show you..."

By the time Mr. Weasley, Ron, Harry, and the dog came into the kitchen, Molly and Ginny had learned how to embrace _saidar_. And when it came time to depart, Nadiera smiled and said, "So, I will be seeing you at Hogwart's in a few days?"

Though one would have thought she was only speaking to Ginny, both she and Molly responded "Yes." Ginny also added, "Then, you'll also meet our friend Hermione Granger. I'm sure she'd be interested in learning what you have to teach!"

"Oh, yes!" Harry added emphatically. "Get ready for her to pick your brain about this channeling; she will want to know _everything_ about it," he warned Nadiera.

"I look forward to it, then," Nadiera told Harry. They all made their farewells, and Nadiera departed with Padfoot.

Once they were off the property of the Weasleys, Padfoot transformed back into Sirius. "You were at it again, tonight. I can tell when a person's been doing that stuff; I can feel it in the air. Harry can even see it. I want to know what you're up to; these women have no need to learn how to do your kind of magic, unless you are up to something!"

"You're sounding like Severus Snape, now." She watched Sirius' lovely mouth shrivel in disgust; he hated any mention of his similarity to Snape. Nadiera knew this, and used the knowledge to her favor when arguing with Sirius. "There's nothing to worry about. And, I told you before; if you are so keen on finding out what I'm 'up to,' then you'll tell me why you have to hide who you are to the world!" His mouth looked even more like he'd just bitten into a rotted fruit.

"I...I can't tell you now. Not just yet. It's...complicated."

"Very well," Nadiera said, as if she considered the matter finished.

Later that evening, Nadiera took out her list. She added the names "Ginny Weasley" and "Molly Weasley" to her list. Annoyed with herself, she suddenly realized that she had forgotten to ask the Weasley women if they knew how to get in touch with Narcissa Malfoy. She eyed her list with a considering gaze; if she could count herself, the two Weasleys, Narcissa, and Minerva, she'd already have five. And then, there was the virtual promise of a sixth, Hermione. Would Narcissa and Hermione even be able to channel? And even if they could, would she be able to find any more women who could learn how to embrace _saidar?_

She had to admit, Molly Weasley's intial hesitation jarred her a bit. She hadn't thought that learning to channel might not work out for many of the girls at Hogwart's. How would she be able to convince more of them to take on the added responsibility of learning to channel the One Power?

She'd have to go to Professor Dumbledore, as much as she hated to do it. She needed his support; he was headmaster of this school. And, maybe he'd be able to tell her more about the Malfoy woman...

**********

The next day, Nadiera found herself in Diagon Alley once again. This time, she managed to get to Lupin's flat without a mishap. Professor Dumbledore had given his consent to her plan, though he had a few misgivings. She had expected that; not many men had the stomach to talk about what her plan entailed. Under the pretense of looking for more clothing to buy, she managed to get rid of both Padfoot and Lupin. She ducked into Madame Malkins', then, a few moments later, tiptoed out of there, and headed for another part of the Alley.

As she looked into the windows of each store, she wondered which of the young girls in them would be her next students. Since she was absolutely surrounded by women who could channel, she had no way of picking out who had the spark born in her and who did not, but could be taught all the same. Nadiera wandered into the hairdresser's, and immediately got swept up into a chair before she knew what was happening. A young witch waved her wand, and Nadiera's blonde hair instantly became saturated.

The Aes Sedai gasped, and another older witch hurried over. "Tsk, these young ones! They have no finesse! At least let's not make the water so cold, and don't get any in her ears, mind!" she demanded of the younger witch, who looked panicked. "Don't you worry, dear," she continued, speaking to Nadiera now. "She's a very good stylist, just a terrible wash girl!"

"I can think of a really cute hairdo for you. I can just take a few inches off..." the young witch continued.

"NO!" Nadiera stammered. "No, don't cut my hair any shorter than it is; I have a hard enough time trying to style it now!"

The young witch shrugged, as if Nadiera was crazy not to want to try her new cute hairdo. She sighed and began with the scissors, controlled with magic, of course. As the young witch snipped away, she chatted mindlessly about her latest spat with her boyfriend. "Blimey, if he don' stop doin' them overnight hours on the Knight Bus, I swear I'm gonna hit the ceilin'! You know how men are! Can't tell 'em nothin' yeh can't!"

"I know what you mean..." Nadiera muttered, thinking of Sirius. She couldn't tell him her plans; Light only knew what his reaction would be. He already thought he owned her, and she could not recall doing one single thing to encourage this behavior in him. She was going to have to have a long talk with him one of these days.

"They always are thinkin' they know best when they don' know nothin'! I keep thinkin' one o' these days, I'm gonna be readin' in _The Daily Prophet_ 'bout how Stanley Shunpike 'as been murdered by dark wizards in the middle o' the night while drivin' that Knight Bus! Oughta be doin' sumthin' else besides that, is my thinkin'! What would you do if yer man kep' doin' sumthin' dangerous?" she aked irritably as she stopped clipping and began curling Nadiera's hair with her wand.

Just as the witch had asked, Padfoot scurried in, as if on cue. Nadiera winced, while other ladies in the Hairdressers squealed with undisguised dismay.

"Who let that animal in here?" the head hairdresser demanded. Her younger subordinates were in a frenzy. Finally, one witch, who had her long pale silver-blond hair in curlers and a blue beauty mask on her face, stood up and made a few purple fireworks crackle through the air to regain order.

"Oh, Madame Malfoy, I _am_ so sorry for this disturbance to your nerves..." her beautician stammered. Nadiera's ears perked up, and even though she was in a state of dishabille herself, she rushed over to Madame Malfoy.

"Aha! You're just the woman I've been looking for! I've been searching for you for weeks!" she told her. Narcissa gave her a cold haughty look, or, as haughty as someone could manages with a blue beauty mask on her face. "I believe that we have a mutual acquaintence that we need to talk about..."


	10. Ice Cream

A Different Kind of Magic

Chapter 9: Ice Cream

Narcissa was annoyed to find that someone had recognized her with that mask smeared all over her face, but then again, that was because of that stupid cow that had called her "Madame Malfoy" in the first place. She was standing face-to-face now with a witch with her sandy hair half-curled and her hazel eyes boring into Narcissa's with a vehemence that spooked her. Who could this woman possibly know that she knew? She'd never seen this woman before in her life! "Who are you?" she demanded. "Who are you talking about? _You_ don't know the people I do."

"If we could have a moment in private, I think I can answer your questions. My name is Nadiera, by the way. Nadiera _Sedai."_

"Is that your mongrel there?" she asked Nadiera.

"Well, yes," Nadiera said.

"Get it out of here. I can't abide mangy animals..." Narcissa complained coldly.

"Once you get that stuff off your face and agree to speak to me, I'll take Padfoot out of here." Nadiera ignored Padfoot's whine. Narcissa looked down her nose at the black dog, which was way too big for her peace of mind, and sneered.

"So, you think to blackmail me into speaking to you?" she frowned, as if this tactic was so far beneath low that she could not comprehend it.

"One way or another, we are going to have this conversation. Therefore," Nadiera answered as she put on her very best Cold Aes Sedai Expression, "I suggest we get ourselves prepared for our talk before that mask stains your face blue and I catch my death from wet hair."

Narcissa was left gaping as Nadiera turned on her heel and sat back down in her chair and snapped at the dowdy girl styling her hair to finish her business already. Under any other circumstances, Narcissa would have admired the way this woman handled herself. But naturally, because she was at the business end of Nadiera's attitude, she loathed the woman on sight.

Nadiera was a bit annoyed with herself; Aes Sedai are not supposed to let women like Narcissa get to her. But then again, Aes Sedai were supposed to be the ones who "danced thrones like puppets on strings." She herself had not done any "throne dancing" during her tenure as Aes Sedai; she was not Gray Ajah. She could have used a Gray Sister's knack for negotiation though, because it looked like Narcissa was a bit upset with her. Well, it was her own doing, with that attitude of hers. Imagine calling Sirius a "mongrel!" It was only when Nadiera realized that she was gripping the sides of the chair with her hands so tightly that her knuckles turned white did she understand how furious she was at this woman. All she was doing was trying to help her!

She eyed Padfoot crouched in the corner, and his gold eyes staring at her. Part of her wanted to beat him away with a stick, and the other part wanted to beat Narcissa with one instead. Maybe she should have been a bit more forthright about her plan, but if she told everyone her intentions, then the plan would come to ruin before it even began.

Her mood only slightly improved when the hairdresser showed Nadiera the finished product. Her hair was now in an elaborate upswept style, with tiny crystals attached to each strand, or so it seemd to Nadiera anyway. She never had dreamed that she could look so beautiful. Suddenly, her dress seemed inadequate, and her face looked pale and drawn. She paid the girl, who thankfully had ceased her prattle about her boyfriend woes, and gestured for Padfoot to follow her out.

Narcissa, if it was possible, looked even colder without her mask on. "I thought we weren't taking that creature with us!"

"And so we are not, but I couldn't very well leave him in here, now could I? Go to Lupin," she ordered Padfoot. "I'll be back in an hour or so. I have things I must attend to."

Narcissa thought it was rather odd that the dog, who was supposed to be a mindless beast, gave one loud booming bark of indignation and took off, as if it understood exactly what this woman had said to it. "Let's go have some ice cream," she suggested firmly to Narcissa.

"Ice Cream?" Narcissa scowled.

"Yes, I rather like it. Especially the raspberry-chocolate-peanut butter flavor. We never had ice cream where I come from," Nadiera explained as she led Narcissa to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream stand.

"Where do you come from?" Narcissa demanded to know.

"Actually, I'm from a city called Tar Valon, which I am sure you have never heard of. Are you from here? You must be since you come for your beauty treatments here. I've been told that there's a whole city beyond this Alley; do you live there?" Nadiera asked her as she began working on her ice cream cone.

Narcissa sulkily spooned some of her vanilla ice cream and asked Nadiera "What do you want with me? You said we had to talk about a 'mutual aquaintance.' Just who is that?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Voldemort," Nadiera told her.

Narcissa gagged on her ice cream, and then glared at Nadiera. "What makes you think I know him?"

"Several weeks ago, I stumbled into that boarding house where you and he had apparently had a, er, _meeting._" Nadiera frowned at the memory. "I had only just arrived here, and I am not very good with Floo Powder. I accidentally wound up in Knockturn Alley. I heard what he had said to you," she told her.

Narcissa's face darkened. "You _are_ trying to blackmail me," she accused her.

"No! I'm trying to help you! I heard the things he said. He said he owned you, and your husband, and that soon, he would own your son as well. I don't know about you; I don't have a husband or son myself, but if I did, I wouldn't want the likes of _him_ to own them!"

"It's none of your business!" Narcissa hissed.

"I don't know where you took off to after that charming little talk you and he had, but he discovered me and we had a bit of a run-in. I managed to get away, but I wonder how many people over the years didn't manage to escape him. I mean to do something about him, Narcissa. You can be a part of it, if you are so inclined."

"You're mad! No one can do anything about the Dark Lord! He's come back from death! How can you stop someone like that?" she whispered with anger in her voice.

"If you want to make a change, and stop being his victim, then I will tell you. If you want to finally free your family from his clutches, then you will know. Otherwise, I can't tell you my plan," Nadiera stated.

"Why are you trying to involve me in this? What do you care about me?" Narcissa argued.

"You are nothing to me, except another witch that can aid me in eliminating Voldemort once and for all. But I suspect that Voldemort's downfall would mean a great deal to you, Narcissa. Think about it. If you wish to help in bringing it about, once and for all, then meet me at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on September the 25th, four in the afternoon. I take it you are familiar with the place?"

"My sone goes to school there," Narcissa said thoughtfully.

"Your son, Narcissa. Think about your son's future. If he becomes Voldemort's servant, he will have no future. Remember that."

Narcissa looked down at her ice cream as the Aes Sedai rose from her seat and walked away. Nadiera could only hope now that her words made the difference.

**********

While Nadiera was having her little discussion with Narcissa, Sirius and Lupin returned to Lupin's flat. For a while, all Lupin could do was scowl at Sirius, until Sirius finally demanded to know what his problem was.

"Are you getting involved with that woman, Sirius? You follow her around constantly. You even stay at Hogwart's now, rather than here, where Dumbledore told you to," Lupin frowned. "You're taking a terrible risk. Leaving Buckbeak in Hagrid's care is also a risk, not only for you, but for the hippogriff as will."

Sirius scowled. "What? Hagrid loves that hippogriff to death! I think the Ministry has more to worry about than a hippogriff, don't you? Besides, there are people at Hogwart's who know who I am, and the others don't question a black dog running around the school. They most likely think that I'm Nadiera's pet."

"Are you her pet?" Lupin cut in.

Sirius sneered. "Lupin, get your mind out of the gutter," he advised his friend.

"My mind? _You're_ the one running around panting after her, and don't think I don't know why! You stay as a dog, so you can ignore the human emotions that come up whenever she's around. Though I'm sure that emotions aren't the only thing that comes up whenever she's around..." Lupin quipped.

"Alright, that's it! You're just talking like this because you like her too! That's typical," Sirius growled, "just when I find a woman, you go ahead and..."

"Look, I'm not blind. She's quite a woman, but let's face it, she would'nt have either of us!" Lupin pointed out.

"And why do you say that?" Sirius asked dangerously.

"Because she hates men," Lupin answered.

"How do you know? Just because she acts nervous around you doesn't mean anything," Sirius snorted.

"Actually, Severus told me, when he brought me my last dose of Wolfsbane Potion. He's told me about that business she can do to make a man unable to do magic any more. Needless to say, he's scared out of his wits," Lupin revealed. "He feels that only a woman who has a profound hatred for men could bring herself to do something like that, and I have to say, I agree with him."

"Oh, that's just great!" Sirius drawled in disgust. "You and Snape gossiping over Wolfsbane potion about my prospects of pissing off Nadiera and getting myself gentled! You know, both you and Snape always had this tendency to worry about shit that I would never worry about! She's got no ill will towards me, and as far as Snape is concerned, I'm very glad he's steering clear of her; this way I won't have to kick his ass in the next time I see him."

Lupin sighed and added, "Oh, so that's what it's called, _gentled?_ Sounds a lot like _castrated_ to me."

"Heh, she'd be a fool to do that to me! Just think of what a loss to the women of this world it would be if I couldn't..."

"I _was_ going to say 'screw' because I thought we were talking about castration," Sirius frowned.

"No, _I_ was talking about _gentling,_ not castration."

"Never mind, Remus. You know you're a shithead, don't you?" Sirius asked, but in a more affectionate tone. "You've been talking to Snape, who passed his shithead disease to you. I had better steer clear of you before I become contaminated."

"As if you already weren't already one! You got it from Peter, though. I'm sure of it..." Lupin countered.

At the mention of Peter's name, Sirius dropped all humor from his face. "Wormtail... Even if Nadiera were as hot for me as I am for her, and even if she was a perfectly normal witch, I could never have a hope of a future with her with Dementors chasing me through the streets. Until I get my name cleared, I will never be free to have a life at all. I can't even be a proper godfather to Harry! While I'm nowhere near as badly off as I was in Azkaban..." Sirius shuddered as he thought about the wizard prison that he'd escaped, "I am still wanted for murder. I can't ever ignore that."

"Which is why you must take more precautions! You're in danger if you continue hanging about Hogwart's!" Lupin argued.

"How am I going to stay away from her?" Sirius asked in such a low voice that Lupin might not have heard him say it at all.


	11. Revelations

A Different Kind of Magic

Chapter 10: Revelations

Nadiera was pleased with her progress. With Narcissa as a definite possibility, along with her other women, she could feel that there was a chance this idea of hers could work. She hoped that other girls that would be arriving at Hogwarts would be equally as successful prospects as these women were. While in thought, she walked one of the many hallways of Hogwart's, and barely noticed Severus Snape until she was almost upon him.

"Oh!" she gasped. "I was not concentrating!" she explained.

"Obviously..." Snape sniffed, and prepared to leave her company.

"Wait! Have you seen Sirius anywhere?" she asked him. To her surprise, Snape's face grew very anxious and angry at the same time. He glanced all around him nervously, then angrily dragged her by her arm into one of the many classrooms in the hallway.

"Unhand me!" she demanded.

"Foolish wench!" Snape snarled. "What do you think you're about, asking after Sirius Black like it was nothing at all? Don't you know that no one is supposed to acknowledge that he comes around here at all?"

Nadiera pulled her arm from Snape's grasp, which thankfully had loosened a bit. "I don't know what he's doing running around like a dog all the time! I realize some people here don't know about his ability to change into a dog..."

"That's beside the point! Very few people around here are aware that Sirius Black is even in Great Britain at all, let alone anywhere near Hogwart's! If anyone knew that I knew of his whereabouts and never reported it, I would be ruined, probably imprisoned! And they would do the same to you as well!"

"Why would they do that? Dumbledore knows he comes here!" Nadiera pointed out.

"True, and it is only out of respect for Dumbledore's wishes that I keep my silence, but there is so much risk!" Snape hissed. Then his face looked as though something had just occurred to him. "Or, could it be that you don't know about the infamous Sirius Black?"

Nadiera's stomach sunk to her feet. "Know what?"

Snape's face brightened, and to her it looked like he had just heard that Winternight was coming early this year. "He's a wanted man. You see, many years ago, he was sent to Azkaban for murdering thirteen people with a single curse. Twelve Muggles that were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and one of his so-called friends, named Peter Pettigrew. He was a shit-poor excuse for a wizard, but be that as it may. His mother wailed with such grief, you would think the fellow had been destined to become the next King of the Wizards if he hadn't been so brave as to face down his more powerful friend who had turned to the Dark Side," he revealed.

Nadiera shook her head. "No! He'd never become a Darkfriend! Not Sirius Black!" she cried. "You don't believe that, do you? Tell me that you're not that stupid!"

Snape laughed humorlessly and sneered. "It doesn't really matter what I believe. Everyone else in the world believes that he is guilty. He was sent to prison, and escaped. He was supposed to be in there for life. It was believed that he was the right-hand man of the Dark Lord."

"Oh, you mean Voldemort?" Nadiera sniffed. "Sirius Black was never a Darkfriend and never a follower of this Voldemort!" she proclaimed.

Snape winced. "We do not say the Dark Lord's name. That's why you will hear many people call him 'You-Know-Who,' or 'He-who-must-not-be-named,'" he explained to her like she was a little folish girl that was sadly lacking in teaching. Nadiera nodded; in her world, most people refused to say the name "Shai'tan," their name for the Dark One. They felt that by "naming the Dark One" they would bring bad luck onto themselves.

"I still say you are mistaken!" she countered.

"About Black being a Death-Eater? I would believe it of him as much as I would believe it of Dumbledore. But as far as being a murderer, well, let's just say if Black had a strong enough argument with Peter Pettigrew, and one thing led to another, I believe he _could_ have killed those people. He didn't plan it, naturally. But thirteen people are dead, Miss Godesin. That cannot be ignored. I would use every precaution around him. And, if you were to be the one to have Black recaptured by the Ministry of Magic, I would not be one to cry about it!"

Snape left Nadiera there, in the Charms classroom, and her mind was reeling. She began to sob; she _knew_ Sirius had been hiding something very important from her. What if she had done something that had inadvertantly led to his capture? Her heart ached at the thought of Sirius being in a dungeon. Thirteen people? Even an Aes Sedai that knew how to kill witht he One Power could not kill so many at one time. She sobbed all the way back to her room, ignoring anyone who passed by her.

**********

Later that evening, Nadiera sat on her bed, depressed. She had to know the truth. And she was not going to obtain it from Severus Snape, certainly. Why hadn't Dumbledore told her anything? Or Lupin? Most likely because they felt it was Sirius Black's responsibility to tell her.

She was furious at him, and that was what depressed her. For once, unbelievably, she was actually finding herself liking a man's company. Light, she was even beginning to trust the man! Well, there was one thing that Nadiera could do to find out some more information.

She would do what Harry Potter seems to be able to do; she would enter the World of Dreams and explore for answers. She turned herself into bed with determination. Nadiera could enter to World of Dreams fairly easily, and was suddenly surprised that she hadn't thought of doing it before now.

A few moments after closing her eyes, Nadiera found herself in a light sleep state. This was when entrance to the World of Dreams was easiest. She pictured herself in Hogwart's Great Hall. It was empty, and the ceiling roiled with black clouds. There would be a storm soon. Nadiera leaped up in the air, and found herself floating instantly high above the clouds.

Below her were thousands of tiny points of light. Each one was someone's dream. Nadiera drifted aimlessly for a few moments. She looked at all the different lights. One belonged to Dumbledore. Another to Minerva. So many, of course, were completely unfamiliar. Others were blocked. There was one point that she could have sworn was her friend Liandrin's. But why would Liandrin shield her dreams? Nadiera thought the better of trying to contact Liandrin anyway. If she appeared in her dream, there might someday be a lot of awkward questions aked. Nadiera never told anybody that she could do this trick.

At last, she came across Sirius Black's dream. It seemed to pull at her, beckoning her to come and see what he was dreaming about. This could only mean one thing, Nadiera figured. It could only mean that he was dreaming of her.

She tried to pull away. After all, if someone was trying to pull you into his dream, then that meant if you get sucked in, that you have no real free will in another's dream. The dream will go according to his subconscius, his rules. She would be unable to leave until he stopped dreming of her, or awakened. But, then again, if she fell into his dream, then she might know what is going on in his mind. This information might prove valuable to her. She consoled herself with this reasoning as she allowed herself to sink down, down, down...

Nadiera found herself face to face with Sirius. "Nadiera," he smiled. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you," he sighed sadly.

"Tell me what?" she asked, even though she already knew what he was talking about.

"The Dementors. They will suck my very soul away if I am captured by them. I don't want you to be in danger," he warned her.

"Tell me that you are innocent, and I will believe it. Just tell me the truth," she sobbed. Imagine, she, an Aes Sedai, sobbing like a girl! But she couldn't help it. Not only was this his dream, but in reality, she had been sobbing earlier anyway.

"It wasn't me, Nadiera! I didn't betray my best freind. I let him down, terribly, yes, but it wasn't me! I had no pact with Voldemort!" he cried.

"I know. Even Severus knows that you made no pact with him," Nadiera assured Sirius.

"It wasn't me! It was Wormtail. I told Wormtail the Secret. He betrayed my friend, our friend! And then, he publicly accused me of the crime. He cast a spell, and," Sirius shook his head helplessly.

"Wormtail! He did this crime? How did you get blamed?" she demanded.

"They couldn't find him. He changes to a rat. He hid, for years. I was sent to prison, for years. I escaped there, but I can't clear my name. I don't know what to do."

Nadiera held him close; even in the dream state, it felt good. "Wormtail," she sighed. "It all goes back to Wormtail. He is a follower of Voldemort."

"I don't want to talk about Peter anymore. You shouldn't be here."

"I want to be here, with you. I miss you. I like seeing you as a human being, not a dog crawling the earth. Don't hide from me," she told him. She looked into his eyes, and drew his face even closer to hers.

"No," he said, drawing back. "I won't do it! I can't do it, not until I am free."

Abruptly, the dark starry air around them vanished, and so did Sirius. Nadiera could have howled in agony. She floated back to Hogwart's Great Hall, and then, awakened.

"I must now not only have Voldemort gentled, but this Wormtail as well," she vowed, then turned over in her bed and returned to a fitful sleep.


	12. Back to School

A Different Kind of Magic

Chapter 11: Back to School

School began on September 1. Nadiera kept away from the start-of-school feast. She did not have her heart in it.

Hogwart's was like a different world now that all the students were back in class. The halls never seemed to be empty, even very late at night. It was filled with noise and controlled chaos. It reminded Nadiera of the White Tower. She was starting to feel out of place, and homesick. The only thing that was keeping her going was her mission. To this end, she tracked down Minerva, who, as expected, was much busier now than she had been.

"I have been practicing the Air Flows you've shown me," Minerva told Nadiera, "but that weave of Air and Spirit to form the sheild is tricky."

"Any night that you are not too busy this week, I can review it with you," Nadiera offered.

"As long as I have a night that I'm not too busy," Minerva sighed. "But, I can arrange a meeting for you and Miss Granger. I know you've been wanting to meet her."

"Make it on Saturday night, then. When neither of you are too busy. She can watch us practice, and perhaps I can get her started on embracing _saidar_ if she is interested," Nadiera said. Then, she had another thought. "Or, maybe _you_ can show her how to do it. Often, in the White tower, we would have more advanced students show the newer students some of the basic Flows."

"Goodness, it's been a long time since I was a student of anything! Teaching is much more up my alley than being a student nowadays," Minerva observed. "However, I believe Miss Granger will be very intrigued with this channeling."

Another person Nadiera wanted to catch up with was Harry Potter, though it would be more difficult for her to deal with him without thinking of Sirius. Still, the boy was obviously a Dreamer, and even if he was male, he would be well worth the study time. If she had been Brown Ajah, no doubt she would already have seen to it that Harry would not be out of her sight. There had not been a known Dreamer in the White Tower for at least four hundred years. However, Nadiera suspected that there were Aes Sedai, and others, who Dreamed, but did not tell anyone else. Even she could do it when she wanted to. She never made a big fuss about it because she did not want other Aes Sedai in the Tower to start making her a subject of intense study, like she was going to do with poor Harry.

With a great stroke of luck, on Thursday, Nadiera found Harry with his friend Ron Weasley, the brother of Ginny. Another girl she had not seen before, but could tell just from looking at her, was the much-talked-about Hermione Granger.

"Nadiera! How are you?" Harry asked her.

"As well as can be expected," Nadiera replied, and looked at the three of them guardedly. Did all three of them know Sirius? Could she take a chance? "How is...the dog doing?" she asked Harry.

In a low voice, Harry answered, "I'm worried about Sirius. I haven't heard from him lately."

"Do you have time to have dinner with me this evening? I'd like to talk to you about, the dog, and other things," Nadiera asked.

"How about it? Hermione, remember I told you about Nadiera, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, and how she tied up Snape with those strings of magic? I would have loved to see that!" Ron cut in.

"Snape! Well, if you stick around Ron, you may get your chance," Nadiera said.

Harry, Hermione and Ron sat with Nadiera in the Hogwart's kitchen for dinner that evening. "I remember when I first saw a house-elf," Nadiera was saying. "I nearly leaped out of my skin!"

"Why? They won't hurt anybody," Harry assured her.

"Well, it's because they are non-humans, yet they can also channel. I sometimes cannot believe the wonders of this world I've stumbled into."

"What kind of world did you come from?" Hermione asked.

Nadiera took a deep breath, thrying to think about the best place to begin. "I think that my world is really your world, only I think a great deal of time has passed. We used to hear stories of people that would fly to the moon in the belly of an eagle. But now, I realized that the 'belly of the eagle' is really what you would call a space shuttle. People in my world don't fly to the moon at all. They don't have cars and trains. They don't even have those wands that shoot metal pellets at people," Nadiera frowned.

"Oh, you mean guns," Hermione answered.

"What's a space shuttle?" Ron asked.

"I'll explain it to you later, Ron," Hermione promised. "What else don't you have?"

"The surface of the Earth has changed. Your continents have been fused together to form the world I lived in. The oceans are on one side of the world, and all the land is on the other. This must be due to the Breaking of the World that had occured three thousand years before my time. I had done some reading on the lost continent of Atlantis in your library here. I believe that the same thing happened to Atlantis that happened to the world during the Age of Legends, the age before my own. I have a theory."

"About Atlantis?" Hermione asked breathlessly. She was as hungry for knowledge as a starving man would be for food.

"I think that when Atlantis sunk into the sea, the First Age on the Wheel of Time came to an end. The Second Age is this one that you are in now. In a thousand or so years, the Age may come to an end. But this Age is surely the Age of Legends that I had learned about. It amazes me how little the books and the teachers really knew about this Age."

"So, each Age lasts a certain amount of years?" Hermione asked Nadiera.

Nadiera spooned some soup and pondered this for a moment. "I don't know. There are a lot of rumors flying around my world, that the Third Age was coming to an end. The Dark One is touching the world, my world, and his touch grows stronger with each day. If the Third Age ends in a couple of years, that will have made the Third Age last approximately three thousand years. A very short age. And the Third Age was one filled with wars and strife. Wars against minions of the Dark One, and wars of nations against each other." She shook her head sadly. "Maybe it is better that it ends. Peace would be a nice thing for all of us. We are so very weary, and the Dark One strikes out when we are at our weakest."

"Sounds like you ought to be glad you're out of there. None of us will be around in a thousand years, or four thousand years from now," Ron shrugged.

"Do you believe that you are reborn over and over again?" Nadiera asked him. "If you do, then you know how important it is to preserve the earth that you have, so that it will be a decent place in which to spend you next life, and the next life after that."

"Yeah, I hear you. You sound like Ginny, always talking about saving the trees and the dirty air that the Muggles keep making because of their cars," Ron complained.

"Well, Ginny's right!" Hermione told Ron.

"So, you believe in reincarnation?" Harry observed.

"Yes, all of the people of my world do. The Wheel of Time has seven spokes, each representing an Age. It will always turn, and each Age will always come, have it's time, and go. As this is true, so it is true that each person is tied to the Wheel, which spins its Pattern. Every person's soul, and each person's actions, and each person's destiny, is woven into the Pattern. I have to remind myself of that. The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, we Aes Sedai like to say. I was brought to this place to do something. My knowledge of wielding the One Power has a use, and I need your help in order to make this happen."

"You might need Hermione's help, but not mine or Ron's," Harry frowned.

"That's not true, Harry. I happen to know you sent a letter to, the dog, telling him about a dream you had," Nadiera said to him.

"Oh, that dream. I didn't write everything about it, you know. Didn't know if it was something you wanted him to know about," Harry admitted. Hermione and Ron looked annoyed that their friend didn't tell them everything that had happened when Nadiera had first arrived, after all.

"He ripped me up one side and down the other anyway," Nadiera reported gruffly. "He was instigated enough, and why didn't he say anything about...his situation?"

"Well, you know about Sirius' time in Azkaban for _a crime he didn't commit!_ Who told you?" Harry asked.

"Actually, it was Snape," Nadiera answered.

"Oh, that's just great!" Harry frowned and rose from his seat. He paced around the room, muttering angrily. "No doubt Snape told you his version of the story, not the real truth. Sirius was set up; he never hurt anybody! You know, I shouldn't be the one to be telling you this. He should be coming here to explain this all to you."

"He hasn't come. No doubt, Snape, or even someone else, put it into his head to stay away from Hogwart's."

"Well, all I can say in his defense is that maybe he just wanted to have one person in his life who didn't know about his past. Maybe he felt he had a clean slate with you. But since you know the truth, I suppose I'd better send him an owl telling him that you know about his past. You won't go telling anybody, will you?" Harry pressed.

"No! I don't believe that he hurt anybody. But I don't want him to get captured by those Draghkars, I mean, Dementors because he was coming to check up on me! I just want to know that he is well..." Nadiera fretted.

"I think he's hiding at Lupin's for the time being. It's a good place for him to hide. The neighbors all think that he's Lupin's dog. He's probably okay, but you know, I worry that he'll start trying to look in on me, or now, you, and Snape might take advantage," Harry said.

"Snape will say nothing as long as Sirius is considered Dumbledore's ally. As much as I dislike the man, I must say that I can trust his loyalty to the headmaster."

"Really? Well, Snape is someone that I don't believe I can ever fully trust," Harry said, "Even if Dumbledore does trust him, and even if Lupin has started unintentionally worshipping the ground Snape walks on because of that potion he makes him! To me, he'll always be a slimy git!"

"I'm with you on this," Ron declared. "I think if Snape could find a way to bust Sirius Black without it looking like he had caused it to happen, he'd leap at the chance.""He so much as admitted that to me last week," Nadiera told them. "The real answer is to clear his name."

Harry shook his head sadly. "I don't dare hope that it could happen. I've given up," he told them.

Nadiera tucked the thought of clearing Sirius of murder into the back of her mind. Her list of missions was growing by leaps and bounds every day. More and more she was beginning to act like Blue Ajah, with their quests for justice. "All this doesn't change the fact that you can help me, Harry. Hermione, Minerva McGonagall and I have been starting a group of women and girls that might want to learn how they can channel, as I do. Minerva's catching on faster than I would have ever dreamed, and from what I've heard, I think you might want to try it as well. Would you meet us on Saturday night?"

"I'll be here," Hermione nodded eagerly.

"But you can't teach me how to do this channeling stuff, can you?" Harry argued.

"No, not the way Hermione and Minerva will be able to channel. But that doesn't mean that you and Ron both couldn't help in a different way. Tonight might be a good night to begin."

"Help? How? What are we helping with?" Ron asked. "Does Dumbledore know anything about all this?"

"Absolutely. In fact, he'll be meeting with us tonight as well. He was very excited to find out the use we could put you and Harry to for aiding our cause."

"When do we meet with him?"

"Later," Nadiera answered.

"Where? Here?" Harry asked.

"No, not precisely. We will come and get you. But the place where we will be meeting you is a place you can only get to if you are asleep," Nadiera explained.

"Huh?" the two boys gasped.

"It is called _Tel'aran'rhiod,_ The World of Dreams," Nadiera explained. "It appears that Harry needs no aid to reach it. You, on the other hand, may require this. Let me get it out of my bag for you..." Nadiera said as she reached into her knapsack. She produced a black marble and handed it to Ron. "This is an object that uses the One Power, apparently, to help a person get into _Tel'aran'rhiod._ I tried it the other night for a few moments and it works as well as any _ter'angreal_ in the White Tower. Professor Dumbledore had it in his collection of artifacts in his office. He told me that it dates back more than four thousand years, and that it was most likely used by Egyptians to enter what he called a 'lucid dream state.' He hadn't thought that there would be much used for it before I told him about what Aes Sedai have been able to do in _Tel'aran'rhiod._ Needless to say, now he knows the potential, and he has approved of me giving this to you..." Nadiera looked at Hermione, who looked like she was being left out of the adventure of a lifetime. "I could request another one be brought to the girls' dormitory this evening if you think you'd like to join us too, Hermione."

"You mean there's more than one?" Hermione asked excitedly.

"He has a whole bag of them. He said that they'd been sold to him as a bag of playing marbles that Egyptian Pharoahs used... Unbelievable, right?" Nadiera laughed.

"This sound like it could be cool. How come Harry doesn't need one?" Ron asked.

"From what I have seen, he was born with the Talent of Dreaming. He is focused only on Voldemort, from what I understand, but with guidance, he can be taught, as well as you two can, to go wherever you wish in _Tel'aran'rhiod._"

"My, my, look at the time," Harry declared, looking at his watch. "I still have Potions homework before going to bed."

"That'll be funny if Dumbledore finds you dreaming about dunking Professor Snape into some shrinking potion," Ron smirked. Hermione rolled her brown eyes and shook her head.

"Ah, what a sweet dream that would be..." Harry sighed.

"We will meet at midnight," Nadiera declared. "Until then, good night." 


End file.
